Exhibits terrific at International Spy Museum

Q. My cousin was in Washington to sightsee, and he came home raving about the International Spy Museum. He even called it the world’s best museum. What can you tell me about it?

A. It is terrific. I spent four hours there one day and could have spent four more. People, especially men, were totally absorbed in pretending to be spies and seeing, reading about and playing with exhibits, films, gadgets and gimmicks used by real and fictional spies.

The German cipher machine called Enigma and a re-creation of the Aston Martin used by James Bond in “Goldfinger” drew crowds. I wondered if the real spymasters got inspiration from the movie gadgets or vice versa, or both.

Take TV’s Maxwell Smart and his shoe telephone. Television’s bumbling spy could make calls from the phone in the shoe’s false heel. The real version was devised by the KGB, not a phone but a shoe monitor and transmitter, making the wearer a walking radio station.

There was a life-size cardboard Emma Peel training a gun at me, watching for The Avengers’ enemies. And a 1777 letter from America’s first spymaster, George Washington, authorizing a New York spy network.

Visitors entering the museum start out with an orientation. Then they select and adopt a cover, a new name and background details that they should memorize. Then they can proceed, breaking codes, identifying disguised spies and becoming the subjects of covert surveillance. Such fun.

There are many oddities: A listening device with solar batteries that looked like a tree stump, set up by the CIA near a Soviet military base. A lipstick pistol that fired one shot, used by the KGB in the Cold War. Equipment and belongings found in the wreckage of Francis Gary Powers’ U2 spy plane when it was shot down over Soviet territory in 1960.

Exhibits and photos tell the stories of Chinese General Sun-tzu, born about 510 B.C., whose book “The Art of War” was required reading for Japanese military officers in 1941; the legendary Mata Hari, a beautiful exotic dancer who failed as a spy; Julia Child, who processed classified documents for the Office of Strategic Services in World War II; movie director John Ford, who was field photo chief for the OSS; Ian Fleming, who was in Naval intelligence during World War II and created master spy James Bond; and the Navajo Codetalkers, whose native language was an unbreakable code in the Pacific during the war.

There are many cameras: A coat with a buttonhole camera from the KGB. A wristwatch camera. Tiny cameras to be strapped to homing pigeons sent to fly over military sites in World War I. Later, spy planes and satellites replaced pigeons and balloons. A Czech “through the wall” camera.

Exhibits in a section called War of the Spies include a briefcase with equipment used by John Walker, the U.S. Naval officer who was the KGB’s most important spy in the 1970s, who was caught in 1985; an account of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, spies convicted for giving the Soviets atomic-bomb secrets from Los Alamos, N.M. (both were executed, and later evidence showed that Julius did spy and Ethel knew it); and American spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen.

I wouldn’t call it the best museum anywhere, but I can understand your cousin’s enthusiasm.

The Spy Museum at 800 F Street NW is four blocks north of the National Mall, across the street from the National Portrait Gallery. The nearest Metro station is Chinatown. The place is so popular that reservations are recommended, especially on weekends. Order them from www.ticketmaster.com or (800) 551-7328. See more information at www.spymuseum.org.